Elton John: Yellow Brick Road Tribute Postponed till March

onstage during the 65th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards held at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on September 22, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

Getty Images/Kevin Winter

Peter Asher tells us the Elton John tribute album has been pushed back to March 2014. Though initially the project — featuring re-interpretations of standout songs from “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” — was planned to coincide with this fall’s 40th anniversary, Universal Music decided not to compete with Elton’s current album “The Diving Board”.

Asher says he’s “really be pleased with it, actually, I’m a bit annoyed they decided to wait until March. Leave this year to Elton and put this out in [2014]. They want to tie it in with Elton’s birthday [March 25th].”

Peter Asher finished working on the Elton John tribute album in October:

“The Elton John tribute album is now finished. It’s a version of eight of the songs on “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”. And I finished it and delivered it to Elton in Las Vegas, physically, about two weeks ago. You know, they always talk about ‘delivering an album and it’s more of a concept. But in this case, I thought ‘what the hell, I’m going to go and see a show anyway.’ So I finished the master, and took the refs with me and handed them to him and took a picture — and sent it to the record company and said, ‘It’s delivered’!”

Asher likes the combination of young artists and classic songs. The producer best known for his work with Linda Ronstadt andJames Taylor promises, “It’s worth waiting for.”

Peter Asher says many the artists on the Elton John “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” tribute are modern rockers:

“People like Ed Sheeran and Fall Out Boy and Miguel and all these cool people doing Elton songs. It was so much fun, I had a great time. And of course, getting to re-approach and re-interpret those brilliant songs that Bernie and Elton wrote was a privilege.”

Country’s younger wing is also represented on the tribute with Hunter Hayes doing “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and The Band Perry covers “Grey Seal.”